I’ve decided that on the run up to Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw this summer, I’m going to rewatch and review all the previous Fast & Furious films. Any of the films I’ve previously reviewed, I’ll link to at the start of the new review.

Undercover LA cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) must decide where his loyalties lie when he becomes enamoured with the street racing gang he’s been sent to destroy.

Everything about The Fast and the Furious is so early 2000s it’s ridiculous – the clothes and the music make it like a miniature time capsule. But in some ways that kind of adds to the films charm especially when you look back on it as this was the foundations of an unexpected franchise juggernaut.

The Fast and the Furious is rightly known as Point Break but with cars. The undercover cop becoming close to the suspected criminals is not a unique plot but, for the most part, the film handles it well. It’s not just Brian having a romantic relationship with Mia (Jordana Brewster) that makes him questions things, it’s her brother Dom (Vin Diesel) who pulls people to him like gravity. The chemistry between the three of them, along with other members of Dom’s crew, make all the clichés work.

The car races and chases are pretty good, the with last 30 minutes of the film being truly gripping and entertaining as everything that’s been building between these characters come to ahead. The techno music that plays during one of the last chases is a bit much though.

The Fast and the Furious is a bit cheesy, with the dialogue being on the nose and the performances not always that confident, but it’s the chemistry between the leads that made these characters ones you’d want to revisit. 3/5.